If you’re over 40, odds are you remember a time when seeing someone with a tattoo meant catching up with your grandpa, who got an anchor or a hula girl on his forearm during the war. Things began changing during the countercultural movement and now, tats are an everyday thing. Tattoo Nation looks at a specific form of ink – Black and Gray – and its rise from the Latino and prison cultures in California. As it happens, that’s a shortfall of the film and director Eric Schwartz. After all, it’s not just Black and Gray that has made a mainstream impact. It seems as though that’s a stronger story to tell, or at least to touch on for the sake of context. Not an especially well-made film, Tattoo Nation is definitely a stronger draw for those embedded in the tattoo culture already.
ByColin Boyd